Morben Guitars

Get a few different colors of permanent marker, then assign a color to each grit. Now all you have to do is draw some hash marks on all your paper (before you rip it up) and any piece you tear off will already be marked. You'll memorize your colors in about a week, or just keep a small cheat sheet nearby.

If you look in the gallery at the tele that I built (ben muchler's custom) you'll notice that I included a momentary switch. Jonny Greenwood inspired. I purchased a few different ones at Radio Shack and finally found one that would take the abuse. Please note that when you wire this into the guitar, you're wiring it so that it is OUT of the regular signal loop, but depressing it brings it in and shorts the signal to ground. You'll probably want to install a small resistor as well to prevent any potential signal "backwash" from damaging your other electronics (caps). Hope this helps. Ben.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_p...ntrol_Pots.html If you can find a "push/push" pot, that may be easier, allowing you to just tap the tone/volume knob to turn the lights on or off...no pulling the knob up.

I'm not surpirsed..you'll get the same answer when asking about grain filler ("Ya'll mean wood filler, yup, we gots that!") People still use it, but it's pretty much reserved for the fine woodworkers and refinishers. The typical weekend warrior who wants to refinish a yard sale dresser on a Sunday afternoon is using minwax stain and polyurathane. Find a shop that understands fine woodworking and chemical finishing. Rockler is a chain store that comes to mind. Homestead finishing is a good online resource. We're not finishing furniture, we're finishing a musical instrument. I may be a bit old-fashioned, but I always vote against the shortcut/easy way and opt for the time-tested methods. It's preferance, but I don't think anything can beat a hand sprayed/polished Nitro finish over a properly sealed/filled surface. Home Depot carries Parks products, including a pretty decent nitro and sanding sealer.

You may also want to try the DUCO Cement that Stew-Mac offers. This is similar to the old Testors Model cement in that it chemically "melts" the binding, which leads to excellent adhesion and very few "open" pores. Using CA is good if you have a 100% perfect join. It won't fill in any irregualrites and the CA won't take finish well if there is a gap.

I think a lot of times we guitar builders forget that we're just borrowing our finishing skills from hundreds of years worth of fine woodworkers. Woodworkers of this caliber are few and far between, but I suggest asking around music/piano stores about who they would have refinish a $200,000 Steinway Piano...that's the guy you want to talk to...buy him a coffee and pick his brain. You want someone that turns their nose down at products like Minwax.. Old school finishing..not the new age "short cut" depot finishes. That said - yes, you really need to fill the grain of mahagony. Is there a reason not to? If you're trying to complete a great finish, you know it's not a 2 week process...so what's another day? In the past woodworkers filled the grain by rubbing pumice into the surface with a shelac medium. It's much easier today. A finish is only as good as the surface you're applying it to. If you want a great, thin, flat finish...then the underlying surface has to be flat. Loading it up with sanding sealer and sanding it flat doesn't count...it will be far too brittle in the future. One can of grain filler should last for 4-6 guitars. It's very easy to apply, and not difficult to sand back. 2-3 coats and you'll have a glass finish. Shoot a coat of sealer, sand flat, then hit it with the clear coat and you've got one hell of a finish.

I'd shoot a few coats of Sanding Sealer, and then sand it flat. That should take care of it...then hit it with the clear coat.

That's the right idea. First step is to draw it out life-sized. See if you can't find a large sheet of plastic sticker backed paper to draw out your tiger stripes. Shoot the black - put on your pre-cut masking, shoot white primer (you'll need to cover the black well for that green/yellow to show), then shoot the green/yellow burst. OR you could shoot the burst and simply add very thin black stickers for the tigerstripes. This will be your easiest bet. If you shoot enough lacquer, or use a poly, you'll be able to make the edges of the stickers invisible..it will look like paint.

Nate, I've yet to even use a polishing compound...I prefer to do it all by hand. I start with a 600 Grit wetsanding paper, and from there go 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, then 2000. This takes a lot longer, but yields excellent results. I still finish with 3M "Finesse It" machine polish. Check Reranch, they have the proper finishing papers if you don't want to use compounds.

There is a picture in the gallery of a telecaster I built and finished in a natural mahogany. Here is the best process I found worked best: 1) Sand back to 220 2) Apply DARK grain filler 3) scrape with Credit Card and back with 320 - repeat 2 & 3 until all grain is filled 4) shoot a few coats of sanding sealer 5) sand flat (no bumps in the finish) 6) at this point you can apply a dye (water or alcohol, I prefer alcohol) 7) seal with a few more sanding sealer coats 8) sand flat again 9) apply nitro finish I choose not to apply any dye since I really liked the look after just the grain filler. The dark grain filler will darken the wood a bit. Do not use the light grain filler - it will leave little white specks in the grain and really looks pretty bad. hope that helps. -Ben

I just had great luck in masking off binding with automotive pinstriping tape. Leaves a very clear, straight line. For most other masking I'll use a blue 3M tape which has a low tack. Any big areas I'll cover with newspaper and just tape the sides.

It look like you're talking about shielding the guitar - which is a little different than grounding the electronics. If you use the stew-mac shilded cable, you should have a decent shield. If you want to further prevent interference with the signal, you can use the shielding paint, which works well - needs to be done prior to construction of a hollow body tho... When running the shielding (and any grounding) be sure to use star grounding to prevent any ground-loops from occuring and generating hum.

Danno and Bob have the right ideas...it is called Snipe, and it can be prevented by having good locking cutter heads and/or tilting the wood up when you feed it through...and up when it's coming out the other side. The two boards idea is pretty good too..never tried that one.

It depends on the stripper that you are using...I don't think that the citrus based ones will harm the binding. However, I wouldn't do this unless you have some spare binding lying around and test it with the stripper first!! Acetone will turn binding into goo - and I assume most other strong solvents will. You should be using more sanding than chemical with a guitar. As per spraying/finshing with binding; tape the side edge off (thickest part of the binding). I just had excellent results using an automotive pinstriping tape. You leave the binding on the front (and rear) of the guitar uncovered and you shoot over it. Then, after the black has dried a bit, you take a razor blade and CAREFULLY scrape the top coat off to reveal the binding. Use your thumb as a guide. Then remove the tape from the side, clean up any black that got through (shouldn't be much). Now clear coat the entire thing.

agreed. Titebond 1 is the best "all around shop glue" I've found, but hide glue has it's stong points as well (no pun intended..) There really isn't one glue that does it all...I'm surprised how much I end up using CA actually...it often does the trick.

Yes, I've used hide glue in the past. The Titebond hideglue isn't really the same as mixing it yourself and heating it up. It's really the only choice I think for hollow bodies/acoustics. Specifically for parts that may be disassembled in the future. Neck joints, bridge, etc. It is an amazingly strong glue (look at antique furniture...probablby hide glue keeping it all together) but with a little heat it disassembles very nicely...perfect for fret boards. I've used it for a few repairs, and have been very happy with it's performance. www.mimf.com has a bunch of great conversations about different glues in their forum. I've learned a lot from them.

No one here uses Hide Glue?

Warmoth has Pearloid Binding that I used on my last guitar...pretty stunning stuff, I haven't seen it on any other guitars. Goes great if you're using a pearloid pickguard as well.

You are at the final stage of building your guitar - and it's very easy to want to rush this step.. So take your time and understand that it will be a bit before you have your dream ax. Here are the steps to properly finish your guitar (given that you are using nitro) #1) Flaten the surface. This shouldn't be too difficult if you've been sanding between coats. For this I use 600 grit and sand with a small amount of water. (keep this in a bowl next to you.) Beware - if this is your first wetsanding experience, be sure to seal ALL bare wood areas. Specifically the holes in the guitar. If water comes in contact with them, it will raise the wood and cause sand-thorughs and other unplesantries. Never sand with just your hand the the paper - always use something flat and hard. I typically use an old 9 volt battery. the rubber sanding blocks offer too much cushion. You can't tell what progress you've made while the surface is wet - so dry it often with a paper towel. You are looking to dull the surface evenly - if you see little shiney spots (hills and valleys) keep sanding. You need it perfectly smooth to ensure a good finish. More than once I've gotten to this step and realized that the guitar would best be served with a few more coats of Nitro. It's a tough pill to swallow - pushing the end date of your guitar back by a few weeks - but it's always worth it. In 4 years, you won't remember the extra work - but you would remember the crappy finish you ended up with by rushing it. #2) Once the surface is flat, begin to step up the grit. Always being sure to keep a good bit of soapy water, and washing out the sandpaper regularly. You'll begin to see (after you dry the surface) the differance each grit makes. I go: 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000. From 1,000 on up you are polishing. Don't skip steps. Set a goal of "2 grits per night" or something. Also, don't be tempted to use a powersander with this paper. Nothing works better than the old elbow greese. #3) After you have it to 2,000 - you'll be able to see youself in the finish, and you can't imagine how much better it could get. Now use a polisher (or the elbow greese again) and apply 3M "Finesse It" machine polish. You'll have a mirror finish. -Since you mentioned that you have a polisher, you may be able to skip a few of the grits and use a compound instead. This is quicker, and if you're doing a bunch of guitars probably the better option. However it is more dangerous as you can easliy get "burn through" on the finish. I've always elected to take the extra time on the wetsanding to ensure a slower, less risky finish. Lastly - I'd consider 4 weeks the MINIMUM to wait to begin sanding after you shot your last coat. Nitro dries rather quickly, but it takes years to cure. Not suggesting that you wait a year to polish - but I would suggest that you begin another project - or start in on the electronics of the guitar before rushing the finish. Hope this helps - sorry for being a bit long winded!